Belief and Knowledge

[bennyboy]

Okay. Then let me address your point. You cannot have faith without knowledge, because faith involves ideas, and all idea must have at their core knowledge of some kind.

Yeah, but those who have faith are sure to have knowledge. If religious, they take their holy books for solid evidence.

They have knowledge about an IDEA, and faith that it represents reality. Their commitment is so strong that they have adopted the idea into their world view. It is faith because even according to that world view, God will not reveal himself directly to any but the chosen few. If, on the other hand, someone believes he has actual been contacted by God, it will no longer be faith-- it will be belief. And if he repeatedly has this experience, he will call it knowledge of God.

But none of this knowledge, or faith, or belief, means anything in the world of shared experience. All I can learn from him is the knowledge that some people are willing to hold beliefs for which they cannot produce evidence, and can interpret as knowledge experiences which I simply consider tricks of a highly stimulated (or severely subdued) brain.